Fifth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration
Innovative Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System: Foundation for Legal Identity Management - 14-18 October 2019 in Lusaka, Zambia.
Innovative Civil Registration and Vital Statistics System: Foundation for Legal Identity Management - 14-18 October 2019 in Lusaka, Zambia.
IMPORTANCE OF BIRTH CERTIFICATE
Theme: “Birth Certificate for All: Fundamental for Protecting Human Rights and Promoting Inclusion.”
In Africa, more than half of the children are not registered at birth, which renders most of the region’s poor unseen, uncounted and excluded, and by extension, affects their ability to enjoy universal human rights and social protection benefits. Birth registration certificate is the first step in securing recognition of indi-viduals before the law and safeguarding their human rights and access to basic social services.
In the Second Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration that took place in Durban, South Africa on 3-7 September 2012, African Ministers endorsed Africa Programme on Accelerated Improvement of Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (APAI-CRVS), which provides a policy and programmatic framework for implementation of CRVS systems on the continent and decided that all countries should undertake comprehensive assessments of CRVS systems and prepare costed national plans irrespective of the state of development of their systems.
The Fourth Conference of African Ministers Responsible for Civil Registration was held from 4 to 8 December 2017 in Nouakchott, Mauritania.
The comprehensive assessment of civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) systems in Rwanda started in July 2016 and was successfully completed in October 2016. The assessment was conducted jointly by the National Institute of Statistics (NISR) and the National Identity Agency (NIDA) in partnership with UNICEF, AfDB and ECA among other multiple partners.
Mr. Oliver Chinganya, Director, African Centre for Statistics, UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) led a team to Sierra Leone on a mission from 27 to 30 June 2016 to support the Government of Sierra Leone to prepare for the assessment of their civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) System. The team members joining the mission were from UNICEF, WHO, UNHCR, Plan International and Centre for Disease Control (CDC).
The comprehensive assessment of CRVS system in Madagascar has commenced on 21 June, 2016. This follows the the big pre-assessment mission that took place in March this year, under the leadership of Dimitri Sanga, Director of ECA Subregional Office for West Africa accompanied by representatives of UNICEF and AfDB. Firm commitments and promises of support were received directly during the mission from the President of the Republic of Madagascar, the Head of Government, the Minister of Interior, the President of the Senate and high-level representatives of the National Assembly.